My wife is looking for a portable device primarily for modeling in Blender and optionally for drawing in Krita. So we looking for something with a GNU/Linux support from manufacturer.

We considered https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/TUXEDO-InfinityFlex-14-Gen1, it looks nice, but maybe you have other suggestions? Do you have experience with convertibles, how convenient is to draw on them?

We also considered https://earth.starlabs.systems/pages/starlite for drawing and a separate device for Blender, but having two devices might not be convenient…

4 points

Laptops from over 5 years ago are well supported by Linux (for the most part). However, the very modern laptops have bits and pieces that aren’t supported, from fan profiles, to the new intel webcams etc. They will run Linux, but you might fry them if your fans don’t work properly. So your best bet would be to get either an old one (I got a Macbook Air from 2015 with 8GB RAM, works great), or get a Tuxedo, or a System76 one, or a couple more Linux-specific ones. And it’s not because suddenly Linux does worse job supporting hardware, but it’s because these machines are. getting more complex and they need drivers for every little thing. Back in the day, things were more generic (e.g. the fans) and worked with a single driver.

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6 points

They will run Linux, but you might fry them if your fans don’t work properly.

The EFI will control the fans just fine.

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2 points

Not the case with all laptops, e.g. some asus ones, and not even the tuxedo ones that require drivers.

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2 points

Agree! That’s why we are looking for something for a manufacturer support. We don’t consider used market only because thinking about something powerful.

I have a SteamDeck and very satisfied with how GNU/Linux runs on it. Windows even run worse on it 😅

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4 points

Does linux support from manufacturer really matter?

The tuxe laptop convertible may seem nice and if she wants to draw on the screen then you are going to be limited on other options. But I would be worried about that intel gpu.

If you want to do 3d modeling you will need something that is gaming grade. I would rather game on a crappy card than model using one. But i also confess i am not up to date with the last few years of developments in that space.

In my very humble experience with digital art a proper dedicated drawing tablet beats any kind of touchscreen drawing.

So if you comfortable installing a chosen linux distro from a usb. (It really is not difficult, ai and YouTube can guide you trough it) and she is not already adept at touchscreen drawing i would suggest:

Lenovo Legion Both my partner and their mom have one with a different graphics card. Most of this line have nvidia rtx cards and all of those will do the job. Naturally more expensive models will have newer/faster cards.

Wacom intuos i am biased to call wacom tablets great because i have never used any others. I can say the intuos line is much nicer then the older bamboo pen and touch/fun line. Models come in different sizes

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9 points

Does linux support from manufacturer really matter?

Only they can truly answer for themselves, but from a business standpoint, yes. It might. Being able to get support direct from the people who made/sold the laptop, whether it be in the form of a warranty or tech support, could save you from having down time when you need to be working.

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2 points

Does linux support from manufacturer really matter?

Not really, but from my experience Linux on laptops sometimes have issues with things like battery life.

I have a SteamDeck to compare and it works just perfect, this is why I were looking at manufacturer support.

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4 points

No manufacturer support. But zephyrus g14 (2022) is my favorite laptop ever. Very few issues with Linux.

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12 points

For blender nvidia gpu is a the best for cycles as it has optiX support.

If she does ONLY modeling and uses eevee renders without viewport previews then integrated graphics could work.

If she wants viewport preview then dedicated GPU is a must. IDK how fares AMD gpu in blender as I didn’t have one for years.

Some gaming laptops with dedicated GPUs need external kernel modules just to work if they even have one.

My best bet would be to go for old gaming laptop.

My second best bet would be to go for system76 as they have some gaming laptops

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4 points

cycles is hilariously usable on weak hardware (though faster hardware is definitely desirable), I tried it on my Intel hd4000 and it somehow works

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1 point

Can you explain a bit what did you do?

How is cycles in viewport behaving?

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2 points
*

I’m dumb, it was prolly running on my i7-3632qm because cycles needs dGPUs for gpu acceleration

it’s still a 12yo processor though

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3 points

Thanks! Yes, she interested only in modeling. Cycles needed more for cool showcases 😅 Will take a look at System76.

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3 points

@Shatur any laptop with a fairly recent amd GPU should be just fine honestly. Even if nvidia cards are slightly better, they can fuck up your whole desktop environment in a random update (among other errors on that line), so imo it’s not worth the trouble.

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2 points

Yeah, I have an Nvidia GPU on my desktop and I regret that I didn’t buy an AMD card.

We looking for a laptop with good manufacturer support because they quite often have either battery or sleep issues.

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